By Lorin Drinkard
The president and founder of Women on Course, a national women’s golf lifestyle organization headquartered in Oakton, dishes about learning to love the game, throwing stellar happy hours and how any woman can pick up a club. Golf club, that is.
Have you always liked golf?
“I really had no interest in golf my whole life … I tried it a few times and thought, ‘This is a boring sport.’ I was actually dating … and trying to avoid golfers because my first husband was an avid golfer. … The man I ended up meeting happened to be a two-handicap, and golf was his life—but he didn’t really let on to that.”
What led you to start Women on Course, an organization that’s worked with over 60,000 ladies across the country since 2003?
“At the time I was the president of Infocus, and I said, ‘This would be a great idea for a series of TV shows where we go to different golf resorts a month and film the whole lifestyle of the resort, golfers … and interview businesswomen who use golf.’ So I started a television series and AOL … aired the show. We had over 30,000 emails from women all over the country saying, ‘Golf looks like fun! Where do I get those cute shoes?’”
Tell me about your Happy Hours.
“Fleming’s Steakhouse is a big supporter of golf, so they put on happy hours for us. The happy hour is two hours, very unintimidating.”
How is your organization different from other golf programs?
“Most golf things are called tournaments … and the word scares a lot of people. We don’t use the word ‘tournament’; we don’t focus on the score.”
For women who don’t have a lot of time to invest into golf, how can they get involved?
“We really find that corporate women don’t have a lot of time, … so we try to give a short cut. If you come to these big signature events, you can find your group, you can do it in an afternoon and dabble in it twice a year …”
What kind of reactions have you heard from Women on Course?
“They say, ‘I now have confidence to do A, B or C. To go play with my office now.’ If you have industries where golf is a prominent activity, the women … come to our events, get familiar with it and then they have the confidence to sign up for an industry tourney or charity tourney at their company.”
(April 2012)
